Cultivating confident and curious learners

March 2013

Every generation brings change, new ways of living and interacting with our surroundings. Among the biggest influencers of change is technology, in particular the internet and mobile devices. As adults, we might note how these simple-looking screens let us do things we couldn’t have imagined as kids. But imagine being a kid now.

For introverted students, there are few things scarier than being called on in class. While their extroverted peers might be eager to speak up, the pressure to answer a question on the fly can be a struggle for quieter students. And yet, many teachers use student participation as a basis on which to assign grades. Some criticize the practice as harmful to classroom dynamics, like two California high schoolers who wrote an opinion piece about it in their school newspaper.

You’ve heard how IXL helps parents, teachers, and students, but did you know we love administrators, too? Your administrator account makes it easy to manage teacher and student access to IXL in your school; you can add, edit, or delete accounts with a simple click. You can also use our comprehensive reporting suite to monitor student usage of IXL in real time. Whether you’re interested in students’ standards readiness before state testing, or you want to keep track of a math initiative you plan to implement over spring or summer break, IXL’s reports can give you detailed information on performance, time spent, improvements made, and much more!

Like the mathematical constant itself, the number of reasons to love Pi Day is infinite! Whether you have an irrational love of math or a penchant for sugary baked goods, we hope you’ll take some time to celebrate this very important number on March 14! Here are a few resources to help get kids excited about pi: 1. The Origins of Pi Day – The Exploratorium in San Francisco is where the first organized Pi Day was celebrated. Their website offers a brief history of pi and Pi Day, as well as lesson ideas for hands-on activities that incorporate pi.

Whether or not you’ve been part of a BYOD initiative, you’ve probably at least heard the term Bring Your Own Device. As the name implies, it’s used to describe the practice of allowing students to bring personal devices from home for school use. Common devices include laptops, smartphones, and tablets—which can be used for everything from taking a quiz to creating a video to conducting research online.

When it comes to math practice, 4th/5th grade teacher George Fiore has found there’s nothing like goal-setting—and a little competition—to get students motivated. What began as a friendly challenge between his 4th/5th grade combo class and another 4th grade class to answer the most questions on IXL quickly became a driving force for many of his students. “They were all over it,” Fiore said of the competition.